Radiation
by TriggerBlues
Summary: Filled with regret, she roams the Capital Wasteland in search of her father. On the way she faces challenges. Romance. Hate. Revenge. Sorrow. Shocking truths and hurtful lies.
1. 1: Radiance : Growing Up Fast

Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. I don't own any of the Fallout Characters other than my own two, Caliber and Trigger. Yadda yadda.

Fun Fact : This story is literally based off of the game play I experienced while playing my character, Caliber.

* * *

Radiation

Chapter One:

Radiance; Growing Up Fast

_ Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first._

_ I... I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong and there's really no telling how the overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going._

_Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with..._

_ Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you._

Caliber played the recording over and over, until her cheeks were wet with tears. The last she had ever heard of her father. James had left Vault 101 in ruin, his best friend murdered, and his daughter distraught and confused. She had just turned into an adult and her father leaves her with no guidance. Some bond...

That holodisk. It made her feel better just to hear his voice. It made her believe that her beloved "daddy" had no choice but to leave. And yet... Every cause has an effect. James was the cause. Jonas was one of the few... depressing, horrifying effects.

Jonas was a great friend to father and daughter both. The sight of his bludgeoned body, bruised purple and bloody... Every night she managed to sleep it haunted her dreams. He had been like... like a brother to her. Where James could not help, Jonas could. He was kind, understanding, patient, funny... Another tear for another corpse...

Jonas... Grandma Taylor... Floyd Lewis... Even more depressing is the fact that other effects were by Caliber's own hand. Officer Kendall, Officer Hannon, Officer Mack, Officer O'Brian, Officer Richards, Officer Park, Officer Wolfe. Caliber's only comfort was the fact that Steven, Amata, and Officer Gomez were safe...

It had been a year. A whole year since she left the comfort of the Vault, and since her emergence into the Capital Wasteland she's been forced to do some terrible things. It earned her the cold, distant nickname, "Caliber." Caliber, from the .308, the .32, even the 10mm shells that she left on her poor victims. With every body that dropped, she placed a single bullet on their chest. A bullet. A bullet and a prayer, really. "May you be delivered safely into the hands of the Maker. Forgive me."

Caliber looked up into the starry night sky, and sighed. It had been a boring day. A day where she sat against a rock and stared at the barren soil. A day of bad memories. There have been many of those lately.

"... I regret a lot of things..." she muttered absently. She got a soft, comforting, teasing reply.

"I know you do, lover. You tell me every day."

Clover sat not three feet away, rubbing her Chinese assault rifle with a strip of cloth. "I quite honestly don't care. What's now is what's now. Not what's past."

The red light of her collar was the only thing that shone that dark night, the fire had gone out hours ago, and her spiked metal armor was a little too dark and rusty to shine underneath the moon. "You regret every kill you score, every little item you steal. You say your stupid prayers when you blast the head off of some fucker who deserves it. You regret too much, baby."

The bloodthirsty bitch hummed to herself as she caressed her favorite rifle, given to her by her "owner" seven months ago. It was of unique make, found on the corpse of some poor sob who had been ripped to shreds in a Dot's Diner. Caliber wasn't one for automatic weapons, and gave it to Clover without a second thought.

The history behind Clover and Caliber is an odd one. Her dark reputation earned Caliber favor in the slaver outpost of Paradise Falls, where she came across a despicable man and a crazy girl. The despicable man, known as Eulogy, thought Caliber to be nothing but vile, and as such welcomed her with open arms. Caliber regretted everything she did to earn this bad reputation, but took advantage of the hospitality, if only to trade salvage and leave again. She'd been given a slave collar and some odd mesmerizing trinket by the guard, Grouse, but never bothered with it.

What caught her eye was the crazy girl. Clover, Eulogy's best slave, bodyguard, and lover. There were many things wrong in her head, but Caliber found her... intoxicating. She desired to be around her. She paid many caps to hold Clover's leash, and when offered freedom, Clover refused. The two have been inseparable since.

"Hell, honey. You've done so much to earn your... delicious name. I don't see how you could regret it. You single-handedly wiped that bomb-town off the face of the earth! I'd never regret doing something as glorious, as _radiant, _as that. Heh heh... radiant."

"It's not funny, Clover," Caliber replied, quietly. "I had no choice. I'm not proud of it. I told you, Burke had me under the impression that it was filled with scum. Later I found out it was because of a fucking _whim_. I killed good people... I know you don't care but _**I**_ do." She took a huge chug of a Nuka-Cola, thinking to herself, _keep count. Five more bottles and then a dose of Rad-Away..._ "One of the few things I enjoyed was putting a bullet through that despicable man's skull..." Burke was the only kill that Caliber had left without a bullet, without a prayer. The .308 shell that would've been placed on his chest was instead on a chain, hung around her neck.

"I'm going to go to sleep. I love you, Clover... and sleep well..."

"I'll make sure to do just that, sweet pea. You get your rest, you're always so worked up."

Caliber held the bullet in a clenched fist and remembered something that one of the Megaton residents had told her...

_This world forces you to grow up fast..._

_

* * *

_

Well, I hoped you like it. Unlike Eternal Beats, I intend to work on this one more often, more diligently.

Hmm. Here's some answers that you may have. Friends of mine, after proof-reading the first chapter, asked about this shit.

Caliber is not a lesbian. She's free-loving, so the fact that Clover's a girl makes no difference to her.

Caliber, despite having blown up Megaton, has "Good Karma."

Caliber's not as religious as one would think. She doesn't worship a God, she worships her gun, her food, and her companionship. But she's very sorry for every kill she has to make, and tries to appeal to what the general population believe in as a heavenly body. A.K.A., God.

My friends have teased be about this, but I'm a nerd to the hardcore. I literally leave one bullet on a corpse after I search it, and unless it's Power Armor or unique armor, I've never stripped a body down in Fallout 3.

In Game, Caliber's currently level eleven. She specializes in sneaking, thieving, hacking, lock picking, sniping, explosives, and some medicine. Her equipment is a Hunting rifle (.32 caliber rounds,) a sniper rifle, (.308 caliber rounds,) 30 frag grenades, and, for the sake of having a keepsake, the BB gun that James, her father, gave her. I know I'm a nerd, shut up. I also keep a teddy bear and about 10 bottles of Nuka Cola on me at all times, (with the food sanitizer the health is about half of a stimpak's worth, so if I lose little amounts of health I Just drink up.)

I didn't mention this in the story, but she wears a Merc Troublemaker Outfit, Lucky Shades, and a head wrap. She's Caucasian with suede-color hair in the Wendy The Welder style. If you didn't catch it, Clover wears her slave collar (as it's not a removable item in the actual game) and metal armor. The Chinese assault rifle that she uses is the Xuanlong assault rifle.

Clover's hair style's a little weird. I think it was called Punked? I dunno.


	2. 2: Glowing : It's Kind of Cute

Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. I don't own any of the Fallout Characters other than my own two, Caliber and Trigger. Yadda yadda.

Fun Fact : I skip some of the minor "battle scenes" but when encounters in game involve more than two enemies, it goes in here. When I hit save and ran from my Xbox to my computer, only two of such battles will be mentioned in this chapter. The rest of them will be in the next.

Another Fun Fact : I completely agree with some of my readers. Clover is, sadly, ignored in all the Fallout fanfictions. I think it's disgusting and it needs to be changed. Her, Star Paladin Cross, and Charon are my favorite companions.

ANOTHER FUN FACT : I'm currently playing Fallout 3 right now. As I'm writing. Not to progress the story, but so I can remember the names of every place that I went. Retracing my steps, really, since Caliber's visit to Springvale.

* * *

Radiation

Chapter Two:

Glowing; It's Kind of Cute

"I always hate walking by here..." Caliber noted quietly, wringing her hands around her hunting rifle. "Bad memories..."

The sky was dark, cloudy, with a foul taste in the air. Everything seemed to glow either a pale, sick green or a blood-colored brown. It was the area around Megaton, only slightly irradiated now since the explosion of the nuclear bomb a year ago. "It makes me sick just being around this place..."

"That's the radiation talking, love," Clover chimed in, smiling devilishly. "Just ignore it. That scavenger said that he took what he could carry from Springvale. I guess that blast blew open a few cubbyholes of loot, mmmn?"

Caliber ignored her, sighing. She only came by because Clover wanted to scavenge some stuff to put her equipment in better condition. Most of the metal plates on her armor had been dented by bullets and were beginning to constrict her movement. Caliber promised to repair it once they came across parts.

"There's survivors out there... Megaton survivors... They didn't even know it was me... Nobody... Nobody really does..." She continued on, almost crying. She stopped at a rusted up car. Chryslus make. "There's some metal plating here..." she slung the hunting rifle on her back, one of three that she carried on slim shoulders. Removing her pistol from its holster, she fired two quick rounds into the rust-red hinges of the driver-side door. "I can probably use pieces of this for the abdomen... I'll need something smaller and thinner for your shoulders and breast-plating." Clover had moved forward into the charred frame of a house, kicking her way through rubble and century-old skeletons.

"There's a few plates of metal. I think they're from an eye-bot. Enclave bullshit. Will this do?"

The scratching noise of metal on ruined asphalt, and five sheets of curved metal found their way to Caliber's feet.

"It'll do just fine... I'll get to work on it the minute we get out of here..."

* * *

We interrupt your reading for this important service announcement : "Make sure to tell your friends about Radiation, hooooo-ey! Don't feed the Yao Guai!"

* * *

"There. You can put it back on, now..." Caliber said distantly, handing the breast-plate, abdomen, and shoulder-guards of the slightly-rusted attire to a naked Clover. Of the few things in the Wasteland that Caliber enjoyed, it was her lover. She smiled to herself and leaned back, resting her head on the rock. She brought her left arm up, and sighed at the Pip-Boy 3000A. Such a nice model. According to Stanley... Not so fancy, durable, and compatible with almost everything. She turned the dial to the right until the recording came up. She hit "Play Recording" and leaned back again.

_Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first... _

"You're going to keep playing that, mmmnh?" Clover asked after the third time the recording played. "It's not getting on my nerves or anything... but I'm sure there's something else you'd rather do..."

Caliber stood up, stopping the recording mid-way. "You're right..." She turned 'round and grabbed Clover by the waist, kissing the naked girl with flushed lips. Clover leaned into the lip lock before her lover broke it. "Get dressed..." she breathed, smiling slightly. "We're going to break camp and walk some more. Tenpenny Tower's too boring, so you and I are going to rent a warm, comfy bed in Rivet City. We'll stay there for a week. Vacationing, as it were. Okay, baby?"

Clover enjoyed this idea very much. Within five minutes she was suited up and just about ready. With a _click_ she cocked her gun, slung a bag of their remaining loot over her shoulder, and stood up. "Let's go, lover. I'm itching for a nice drink and a nicer bed."

* * *

It didn't take long for the sun to disappear, and by the time the moon was high the pair had reached the outskirts of D.C.

"F... Farragut... West Metro Station. Have we been through here?" Clover asked, running a finger along the metro-board's title. It glowed a bright green-white, and a map of the metro line was displayed.

"No. I don't think we have, Clover. But I'm not willing to put up with all the Super Mutants that patrol along the river... No doubt they've been replaced since our last journey to Rivet City." She, too, ran her finger along the board and sighed. "I wish I knew where each of the stations lead to. We'll just have to gun our way through here. If it leads to a dead end, we turn back. Otherwise we'll just go blindly forward. We'll hit Rivet City eventually."

It wasn't long before they made contact. Nothing but stupid Mole Rats. A single whack from the butt of Caliber's hunting rifle snapped the neck of one. Clover unleashed hell and sprayed upon the other two, the familiar _ching-ching-ching_ of her rifle ringing through Caliber's ears. The end result of five mere seconds was... messy. Blood was everywhere, and for ten seconds more Caliber couldn't hear.

"Don't shoot so close to my ears, next time. Okay, baby?" Caliber warned, laughing. "I think this place doesn't have any threat as big as a raider or mutie... If there were raiders or super mutants, these radroaches and mole rats would be dead-" Suddenly she threw her hand back, knocking Clover in the chest.

"Ouch, what the fuck-?"

"Shhhh!"

The disgusting sound of a hacking screech reached Caliber's ears, followed by another. "Ghouls..." she whispered to Clover, tightening her grip on her hunting rifle. "Three? Four? Maybe... five of them... Be careful, they're hard to spot in places as dark as this..." The two made their way to a metal staircase, making the very lightest of steps. Only to be interrupted by a _clang_.

"Fuck!" Clover whispered, once the butt of her assault rifle hit the railing. It rang out and just above the two came the familiar hacking calls of feral ghouls. Caliber held up her hand, signaling her partner to stand completely still. There were sounds of claws on chain, and the padded noise of bare foot on metal. Their cover was blown.

Why were they not coming down? It was obvious their presence was known to the creatures. The sounds of their movement indicated that they couldn't go any farther than they were.

"What's happening?" Clover asked as Caliber poked her head above the second level. Cover blown, Caliber had no choice but to laugh.

The poor, stupid creatures were clawing at a locked gate, snarling and hissing and sniffing at Caliber, who now stood not a foot away from their reach. Their skin was rotten and peeled off in some places, claws dulled down to nothing but nails. Probably from the scratching against the fence. They seemed pretty harmless, for zombies. "Come on up, it's... It's kind of cute..."

Clover cackled more than she did laugh, and fired off a few rounds into the gates, none of them hitting the ghouls. "What do we do with them, baby? They're not worth our fucking ammo, the stupid bastards."

Caliber grinned deviously and looked around. "Let's check that door. I don't hear anything breathing behind it." She pointed towards the door directly behind them, and kicked it open.

It was a small storage office, with a desk and computer in one corner. Behind the chair was a safe, with a fairly average-security lock. Oh, and look at all the loot! There were some spare parts of various things in here that'd make a small fortune if sold! Clover was quick to sweep them all into one of her three shoulder-bags.

Caliber sat at the desk and fiddled with the computer. Run_Program debug. Begin Wipe Run. Administrator.F. Yadda yadda.

"Bingo. Let's see here... Options. Enable gas... Unlock cage... And unlock safe... Hmmn. Enable gas... What's that supposed to mea-..." Her attention was caught by a book, _Nikola Tesla and You,_ sitting next to a pre-war first-aid box. She skimmed through the book first, then tossed it into Clover's bag for later reading. She then turned to the first-aid box, which she flipped open. What was inside was... rather oddly placed.

Stimpaks, Rad-Away, Rad-X, even some bobby pins. But they were all pushed aside by an AEP7 standard-issue laser pistol.

"Check it out, Clover," Caliber called, holding it up by the trigger-guard. "Free tech!" Underneath the pistol was a note, and Caliber picked it up.

_Congratulations on receiving your new DCTA Standard-Issue Laser Pistol!  
Please take a few minutes to go over the guidelines posted in the DCTA Employee Handbook; Section 28.1.1.b, and reprinted below for your convenience._

_Section 28.1.1.b - Proper Laser Pistol Usage  
It should be noted that all DCTA property should be handled with the utmost care, and used only when necessary. Maintaining personal safety during a Communist attack is a good example of proper usage of your standard issue laser pistol. However, rodent population control is an inappropriate use and subject to disciplinary action, as noted in Section 11.3.5.c  
Section 28.1.1.b.1 - Maintaining Safe Conditions With the Laser Pistol_

_Using this laser pistol in the DCTA Metro facility can be beneficial in many ways, but the operator must observe his or her surroundings before deciding to fire. The subway utility pipes often serve as conduit to transport highly flammable gasses. Firing the laser pistol in the presence of a gas leak could cause an undesired explosion and/or severe personal injury.  
Section 28.1.1.b.2 - Operating the Laser Pistol Within Proper Specifications  
It is required that all DCTA Employees keep the laser pistol pulse energy, length and repetition rate within the specifications diagrammed in the Laser Pistol User's Manual. Failure to do so could result in severe reprimands from the DCTA Regulatory Committee as well as serious personal injury. _

"Huh. I guess it's given to the metro workers should... Uhm... "Communists" attack. I wonder what "Communists" were... There's energy cells here, too..." Clover mentioned after dumping the contents of the first-aid box into her bag. She gave the cells to her partner, who then packed them into the cartridge holster.

"Communists were people back before the war that had different ideals than the American government. I read somewhere that they infiltrated this country, had spies everywhere, and some say that they even initiated the bombing that formed the wasteland. Most of them spoke a different language and even managed to militarily invade Alaska, which is a state far west and then a little north."

Caliber looked back at the monitor screen. _Enable Gas..._"This gives me an idea..." she grinned, hitting the enter key twice on the keyboard. The hissing sound of a gas leak was heard, conveniently above the ghouls. She then turned the swivel-chair around, leaning over the safe. A bobby pin and screwdriver twirled between her fingers. "It's no fun to just hit a button on the computer and open this thing. Let's see if I can't get it open the old-fashion way."

It was easily unlocked an opened, and Caliber pulled out some minor money-making loot. A few packs of cigarettes, some bundles of pre-war money, some old, preserved Nuka-Cola. But what grabbed her eye was a rather rare weapon. A .44 caliber scoped pistol. It was odd that people before the war would put a scope on a magnum revolver, but nonetheless, .44 rounds were very powerful. Caliber put the weapon in her spare holster, promising to put it in better condition at a later time. "Now. Watch this, Clover..." She said boldly, standing up.

Walking out of the door to confront the still-clawing ghouls, she twirled the laser pistol in one hand. She fired off a single shot above their heads, with a devious grin on her face. It seemed to be one of those rare moments that the normally apathetic girl enjoyed.

_FWOOSH._ The gas leak above the ghoul's head suddenly ignited from the laser bolt, and the resulting explosion set fire to the raining bits of five poor, stupid ghouls. "I regret many things, Clover. But sometimes I enjoy it when the world gives you a freebie."

Clover was laughing too hard to respond, the crazy bloodthirsty girl enjoying the smell of burnt, rotten flesh and eyeballs strewn about.

Thinking the adventure through the utility line as more "fair game," Caliber ignored the computer's option to unlock the gate and did it herself, smiling. More items were scavenged from downstairs, behind the rest of the chainlinks, all of it ammo. And an issue of _U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes._ Caliber found the title humorous, and flipped through it. She tossed it into the bag, right on top of the _Nikola Tesla and You. _

"These pre-war books teach me so much. I swear without them, I wouldn't know how to hold a gun. I feel like I get better at everything every time I read another issue."

"I never bothered. It's in hot sweat that I learn my how-tos..." Clover remarked, sighing. It couldn't be helped. This girl grew up in a Vault, surrounded by books.

They made their way to the end of the metro-line, and by the time they emerged, they were surprised to what they found.

"Oh, fuck." Clover whispered.

"Shut up." Caliber whispered back.

_When words fail, there's always fists._

* * *

So, how'd you like it? I found that I outdid myself with this chapter. I can only get better with the chapters to come.

So, here's some more fun facts...

The whole "inventory/weight system" in Fallout 3 is expressed by Clover's carrying of shoulder-bags. I usually give all my spare shit to her.

Caliber does not believe Feral Ghouls as "human." As such, she does not give a prayer or a bullet for them. Neither mole-rats. Or any "creature" of the Wasteland.

Sometimes, between breaks in the chapter, I'll leave a quote from Three-Dog's Galaxy News Radiot signal. It'll be fun for you. I promise.

I used the Intense Training Perk repeatedly when leveling up, so Caliber's stats are, S.P.E.C.I.A.L.-wise, 6/9/5/5/10/9/6(+). I have a Strength and Intelligence bobblehead so far, that explains the 6 and 10. I also have the Lucky 8 Ball from Timebomb (the Big Town "arc" will be in a later chapter)

I'm going to end every chapter with an italicized quote. Usually from Fallout bobbleheads, but others, such as the first chapter's _This world forces you to grow up fast..._ will be from either my own head or quotes from fallout's characters. You guys get the picture.

I'm not so good with writing the "sexy" parts, so I think lesbian sex can wait till later chapters. Sorry, perv-friends.

Make sure to spread Radiation to your friends! Your comments sustain me, I live for your acknowledgment and/or approval.

I love you all, thanks for your feedback.


	3. 3: Green : Kind of a Super Problem

Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. I don't own any of the Fallout Characters other than my own two, Caliber and Trigger. Yadda yadda

Fun Fact : After reading some comments, I decided to inform you that, no. In story, Caliber hasn't found any information regarding her father. In game, I just finished watching James die and escorted all the members successfully to the Citadel. But that will be way later. Right now I'm "retracing my steps" in game, so I know where Caliber traveled, what she fought, and who was there.

Embarrassing Fun Fact : I promise I won't make the same mistake again, but I realized that I completely blew through the Tenley Town/Friendship station, which was the exit to the end of Farragut West. My point being, I encountered only pockets of one to two feral ghouls, a single raider, and some radroaches. I didn't even bother to stop to search for items. I didn't find anything worth writing in there, thus it was not mentioned. But, a good writer adds even the smallest of details if it involves Point A to Point B. Sorry! 3

Fun Fact : If you haven't noticed, Caliber enjoys an adventurous, slightly devious lifestyle. But she begins her whole "regretful, apathetic" phase the minute they stop and set up camp. It's a mental thing. She saves the crying for when they're done. She plays along with Clover's care-free let's-be-fucked-up attitude not only to humor the crazy bitch, but because she thinks it as a form of coping.

* * *

Radiation

Chapter 3

Green; Kind of a Super Problem

"That's... It. Don't... Move..." Breathed the heavy beast, holding a dirty, slightly chipped assault rifle at the pair. Caliber's rifle was strapped to her back, her pistol out of 10mm rounds, and Clover's rifle was hanging by it's strap from the bag. They were completely unarmed.

"Super Mutant..." breathed Clover, raising her arms in form of surrender.

Caliber did the same, "No shit..."

The huge, yellow-green figure wore a helmet with a metal blade-like protrusion running down the middle. "Brute, apparently..." Caliber whispered, finger twitching. What...to do...

"You want to..." the hulk breathed again, "Become? One of... us?"

An... Odd question. "What?" the partners asked in unison, confused.

"One. Of us! You'll become... strong. You will come, with me!"

"Like hell!" Clover screamed, running forward to toss a right hook. Her metal glove made an impact into the assault rifle, knocking it aside. Without thinking to draw her weapon instead, Caliber instinctively came up with a swift kick, athletic and flexible as she was, the heel of her foot knocking off the Super Mutant's chin. The Hulk cried aloud and swung with a giant arm, knocking the two together and to the trashcan at their side. It crashed and Caliber felt her back slam against cement, she let go a gasp for air, and blacked out for a brief minute. She awoke to a concerned Clover hovering over her, the side of her shaved head bloody.

"C-Clover!" Caliber cried, pointing in horror as the beast had picked up his weapon and swung the butt of it. It made a horrible crack against Clover's shoulder, and the collared girl was thrown aside. She lay limp against the stairs, right shoulder already bruised purple.

With that the Super Mutant strapped his assault rifle to his back and grabbed Caliber by her shirt, tugging her to Clover's slightly mangled form. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled the two up the seemingly endless stairs. It was an unpleasant drag, but it lasted no longer than two minutes. The Super Mutant camp was no more a simple destroyed building. Not even that. It was the ground floor of a building, and the framework was holed in places, a crater beneath. The crater was filled with corpses, both fresh and skeletal. Chunks of flesh and armor strewn about. The sight almost made Caliber nauseous.

"No... Talking," The brute ordered, binding their hands and ankles, and shoving the pair into the pit. "Those... are people... who didn't make it. Keep quiet, and nooooo... no... nothing will happen, to you..."

Caliber eyed her partner, sighing. Nothing to do but wait... Wait and plan.

* * *

"Someone's already been here," the man whispered to himself, running a hand along the corpse of a mole rat. He stood up, wiped his hands on his knees, and dashed forward. _They're going to beat me to my prey._

* * *

Three Super Mutants, now. Two had gathered within the course of the hour to join the first. They were discussing what to do with the pair. Clover had woken up and leaned sideways on her good shoulder, cringing in the slightest.

"They... can make, very stroooong. If, joined with us..." Said the brute in that heavy, mindless breathing of his.

"Make better food, instead..." Said another. He was slightly smaller than the brute, and had no armor. The tint of his green skin was pale and weak.

"Females..." Breathed the third. "They're not worth eating, or tuuuuurning. Maaaate... Mate with them. Have... much fun." This one had the voice of a Master, and wore heavier armor than even the brute. A huge cartridge for 5mm ammunition was strapped to his back.

"No!" The brute objected, growling. "We turn them. It was... It was me, who found them! I decide! Take them to the Place, and turn them!"

The second mutant snarled back, yellow teeth shown with the raise of his upper lip. "We haven't eaten... for... Two cycles of moons! I'm... hungry...!

"Mating!" Demanded the Master, slamming the ground with the barrel of his minigun. This aggravated the mutant who wanted to eat the pair, and he swiped at the heavily armored brute with a plank of nailed wood. It barely grazed the others arm.

The master howled and swung his arm to the weaker mutant's face, knocking him into the pit below the shattered floor. He landed with a _thud_ right next to Clover's leg. The crazy girl smirked in the fallen mutant's direction, moving her leg to give its head a quick kick, a potentially dangerous tease. Caliber shoved her shoulder into her partner, begging her to stop.

_What a charming situation..._ Caliber thought sarcastically to herself. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate, breaking the situation down in her mind's eye.

_Okay. Eaten, turned, or fucked. Turned into what, I couldn't tell, but I think..._ She opened her eyes to catch a glimpse at the mutants. Other than scrap-metal armor, they seemed to wear stretched, ripped, tattered clothes. _I think they mean turned into one of them... I'm not too fond of being a sex slave. I don't even want to imagine how they have the desire to do it... And... And I don't want to be fucking eaten... However, their base, if there is one, can't be in the D.C. Area... The Brotherhood of Steel would've extinguished them long ago. So... If we're to be turned, we could at least try to escape a few times on the journey there..._ Caliber had decided to lay her hopes on being "turned," and as such she leaned in to Clover's ear.

"While you're there I want you to try to break that one's neck..." she muttered, so quietly that the brutes above couldn't hear them if they tried. Clover nodded back, grinning.

It was quite disturbing, how the wounded, crazy girl managed to move her bound legs around the grounded beast's chin. With a flop Clover kicked the chin up, a loud _snap_ resulting from the break of giant bone. The arguing couple above stopped their bickering and both looked below.

The brute simply laughed, teasing the partners with stupid, slow, bumbling insults, promising a week's worth of hell through ground teeth. The master, however, reacted in a frenzy. Apparently his sense of camaraderie was twisted, as he was the one who threw the now-twitching mutant into the pit in the first place.

"No... No!" he roared, lifting his minigun, "You... can't be worth it! You... you die, you die here!"

The hum of the rotating barrel could be heard, disturbingly loud and treacherous. It was one of those moments that time seems to slow down, Caliber watched as five or six shells exited the mouth of the beast and flew towards the pair.

Her adrenaline rushed, her heart pumped. Sweat stood still on the top of her nose for what seemed like minutes. But...

The gunfire stopped, instantly. Caliber's eyesight focused on the beast behind the gun and time seemed to mean something once again. The girl screamed aloud and fell back, as the beast no longer had a head. Small spurts of darkened blood almost spewed like a fountain from the hole in the Master's neck, and behind the still-standing corpse stood the Brute. He had literally chopped his superior's head off with the swing of a rusty old sword.

The hulk's body fell to the side, and the familiar chime of metal on concrete could be heard as both the cartridge and the gun slid off, out of sight.

"You're... Going to regret... doing that," breathed the last brute, tossing the sword away. "But... turning... is... is... isn't so baaaa-!" He stopped there. Another one of those moments occurred, where time seemed to slow down and Caliber's senses heightened.

* * *

We interrupt your reading for this important service announcement : "Spread the word, Radiation's the best thing to happen to Fanfiction since... something or other..."

* * *

_Fwoosh._ The man jumped from behind a shattered bathtub, which lay on the seemingly unreachable level just above the brute's head. If anyone but Caliber were to notice the man, they'd see a blur of brown flowing forward. As he appeared to fly from his perch, left hand on his hat, the right holding an ebony revolver, he gave the quickest, miss able of winks in Caliber's direction.

He landed right behind the brute, pressing his pistol into the back of the thing's skull. With a pull of the trigger, a gaping hole four times the size of what should be a bullet hole pushed it's way through his skull, bits of brain and blood and bone jetting forward. It was a horrific sight, as the beast lifted his hands to his face, not understanding that it had died. _It couldn't see. _The eyeballs were torn and strewn about like in a horror movie, and the ugly, turned-up nostrils began to flood with the blood of the beast. It fell to its knees and then once again, diving head-first into the pit.

Caliber's blinked once and everything seemed to speed up, her adrenaline stopped racing and her heartbeat seemed to slow.

The man in the duster and a cowboy hat wiped down his coat, swiping bits of blood and flesh off the fabrics. Instead of a holster, the pistol seemed to disappear into his right sleeve, and he walked forward. Getting closer, Caliber's breath was almost taken away.

What she thought seemed... stupid. Her mind raced only about her savior, and she seemed to have forgotten about the bloody horrors she witnessed not ten seconds before.

_Handsome._ Beautiful green eyes, long auburn hair, a slightly darker, shaved chin. His voice was suave and charismatic.

"Why howdy, there. It seems like you two are in a bind." He tipped his hat and grinned. "My name's Daniel. Daniel Paulson. Feel free to call me 'Trigger.'"

* * *

Caliber's wrists felt like they were on fire. There were reddened rings around them from the tight bind of the rough, irritating rope. Like a true gentleman, Daniel rubbed them with surprisingly smooth hands. "Would you two be kind enough as to give me your names...?"

Clover grunted and turned away after her shoulder was bandaged and she had been given doses of med-x, two stimpaks, and a buffout, her pain eased. She'd need treatment whenever they reached Rivet City.. She began gathering ammunition and other loots off of the bodies, ignoring the handsome man and used only her left arm. She wandered out of the pit and to the ground floor, grumbling.

Caliber smiled at her rescuer, her voice a little shaky, "I'm Caliber. That over there is my lover, Clover..."

""That over there?" You think too little of me," Clover called from above, tossing all three of her bags into the pit below. "Not a lot of loot, maybe about thirty caps' worth. All our stuff is still here, though."

Caliber nodded and looked back to the handsome man, "So Daniel... Your clothing's a little..."

"Odd? I know. It blends in with the wasteland, though." He laughed, tipping his hat. "I'm a Regulator. This is standard attire for my organization."

"Familiar, I was going to say... Regulator... I... see." The Regulators, a bunch of Wasteland law-bringers. Basically assassins with a conscious. They knew of Caliber's misdeeds, but after appealing to Sonora Cruz, Caliber's repentance has been accepted.

It took a good ten minutes to clean up and get all their equipment ready, before more conversation was held. "So, why are you here, Daniel?" Caliber asked, wringing her still slightly sore wrists.

He grinned, running a hand along the brim of his hat, "I'm hunting. I've been assigned to locate and exterminate all Super Mutant Behemoths in the Capital Wasteland. After asking around, I've discovered that there is one roaming this part of D.C. When I found evidence of your presence in the metro tunnels, I thought that you were here to steal my kill."

"I don't even know what the fuck a Behemoth is," Clover interrupted after jumping back into the pit, two of the large satchels clanging together. The third lay limp and empty. "We've only got enough room for another... Thirty kilos, at most..." She mentioned to Caliber, turning her head back to Daniel.

"What is it, a Behemoth?"

"Well, missy," he began in that suave slang of his, "It's this huge brute of a Super Mutant, anywhere from three to four times bigger than an average human. There's only a handful of them known of in the Capital Wasteland. The current beastie I'm tracking is about... oh, probably seventeen feet tall. I think. I've only found his foot-prints."

Caliber would have swooned if not for her prim composure, "We're not hunting for something so... dangerous," she rolled her wrist about, as if lightening the situation, "We're on our way to Rivet City. I decided we'd explore some, hopefully this metro would lead us the right way through. There's too many Super Mutants along the river." Scratching her head, she added, "Clover and I haven't really been through D.C..."

Daniel nodded, standing up to dust off his knees. "Well, ma'am, I'd be more than happy to accompany you an' Miss Clover wherever you go. Mind you, I'm equal to shit with directions, so I'm not even sure if there's another metro line around here. But new roads lead to new adventures, am I right?" He held out a hand to a blushing Caliber, and pulled her right up. "Let's get going. I'm almost positive there's more Super Mutants around here..."

With that he held his hand up, a common and, as of late, a frequently-used signal to silence. He and Caliber both looked up, above the pit, to see a blonde woman with light blue eyes pointing a laser rifle towards the three. "State your business, travelers, or be fired upon!"

_Arrive at peaceful solutions by using superior firepower._

* * *

Well, that's how I crappily end the chapter. I have so many ideas but I'm cold as fuck, and my fingers are too frozen to type anymore. Isn't it retarded? Southern California is -cold-. How is this possible? Fucking... apocalypse over here.

Since I cannot type anymore I decided to end the chapter – I've kept you hotties waiting long enough.

Thanks for all the comments! PLEASE give me more. I ache for your opinions.

Here's some more facts :

Caliber's habit to leave a bullet on a body is primarily due to the fact that... I literally have thousands upon thousands of .44, .32, .308, and 10mm rounds. With the Scrounger perk, ammo becomes nothing more than an everyday thing. Even the rare ones, like Microfusion cells and .308 and .44 ammo.

Daniel Paulson, aka "Trigger," is Paulson's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson. Paulson, as some of you may know, is a cowboy found in the add-on Mothership Zeta.

Daniel's revolver is indeed Paulson's Revolver, which fires nine shots with one pull of the trigger, hence his nickname and the size of the hole in the Super Mutant's head. It's unclear in my story how Daniel came across this .44 magnum pistol. I hope you like him. :D

Editor's Note : I decided to add this in -after- publishing, so if you're re-reading this chapter, don't be confused. After reading a certain concern, I simply found it... right, to let you know that... : The Super Mutant Master's desire to mate is, well, fuzzy, yet explainable. While indeed asexual, Super Mutants can sometimes have a tendency to retain memories, habits, and even behaviors. Perhaps the Big Guy was a pervert, a rapist, a sexual deviant, a prostitute, before he was exposed to the FEV? I'll let you readers decide. In all honesty I was trying to make the whole "What to do with the captives" situation a reference to Tolkein's The Hobbit, where the three giants began to argue how to eat Bilbo and company.

Feel free to leave your own questions about my story and I'll be more than glad to answer them.

Love!


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